With the illustration of the "Die Marter der Zehntausend " (Ten Thousand Martyrs) Durer took on a motif that was particularly popular in the late Middle Ages. In addition to the woodcut, he also executed a panel (1508) for Frederick the Wise, elector of Saxony. Dürer references the legend of the conversion of a Roman army of mercenaries to Christianity, which made the Roman emperor so angry that he ruled the soldiers should be punished with death. Dürer depicts the soldiers' martyr in the upright oblong woodcut as a cruel massacre in a hilly landscape. The folio sheet, which is at hand here as a rare impression from the first state, is particularly impressive for its rich scenery and the different bodies. In a draft for an “ÄsthetischerExkurs“ (aesthetic excursion) Dürer mentions the sheet as a prime example of the efforts it takes to implement different positions and postures in one picture (cf. Sch./M./Sch. 104, pp. 41f.).